and a few more shots....

I declare the backyard project done

Gardens are never finished, a quality that makes them delightful. Projects, however, have beginnings and ends, and the crazy landscaping project I started a couple months ago is done. Today, I added one last garden. I call this one our recycled garden, because I made it with all the leftover bricks and stones once everything else was complete. For now, I've planted some annuals, but next year, this will be a small veggie and herb patch. Next, Tuffy P and I are thinking about introducing more and more mosaics....

Rock Garden

Well, here's the rock garden I've been working on. It's going to look a lot better when all those new plants settle in, and spread around a bit - but you can get a good idea now my vision for the overall garden.

a day off

I'm taking tomorrow off work....I want to try to finish off the back yard landscaping, which seems to be an everlasting project. I still have to make a little rock garden and clean up the original patio... but tonight I'm off to play some Go, so I might have to sleep in a little in the morning....see ya later

Backyard update

Click on the photo to enlarge.
The yard isn't quite done yet, but it's getting there. On the weekend, I completed the path. If you take it to the back of the property, my studio is the building at the back, and to the right of that is the new patio, behind the Japanese maple. I also completed the raised garden on the weekend. It will look a lot better once the plants make themselves at home. Next year, I'm going to have flowering vines climbing the outside of the raised garden. Just behind it, you can see the remainder of my 13,000 pounds of stone. It is going to be one more small raised garden, beyond and to the left of the Grey Owl pompom juniper. There is much more room in there than there appears to be in the picture. I took the photo from the patio just behind the house, which I'm not touching this year. In the foreground on the left, there remains a pile of soil. I'm going make that area into a rockery from the raised garden to the foreground patio - hopefully before the end of the month.

This is a situation where the power of a vision is stronger than daunting physical reality - in other words, it has been way more work than I considered. If I had allowed myself to seriously consider the extent of the labour, I may well have not done it. As well, my neighbours Joseph and Clarence each helped me when I really needed it. Tuffy and I are fortunate to have some fantastic people living around us.

By the way, there is another garden you can't see, off to the right. It includes several peonies, a butterfly japanese maple, a big old rose, and a rose o' sharon, among other things.

Work in the back garden

This has been a productive weekend in the back garden. The pathway is almost complete - next up will be a raised garden on the near left.

My foot

I did something bad to my right heel a few days ago. Naturally, I've been ignoring it, but this morning, I could hardly put weight on it and it has been pretty bad all day. I will take the usual guy approach and continue to ignore it for another day or so. It isn't really swollen, so I'm hoping that means I didn't break a bone..... going to have to hold off on finishing the backyard project until this gets a bit better.

Stubborn stump

The big job of the day today was removing the stump of the old plum tree in front of my studio. I hate cutting down trees, but I took the plum down in 06 for all sorts of reasons - mostly it was badly diseased and it was planted in a very poor spot. Today, I removed the stump. I received all sorts of advice from the peanut gallery on this.
- hire a guy to grind the stump and leave the rest
- burn it out
- split the stump with an ax and remove the pieces

I dug and sawed and picked and chopped and dug and whacked and whacked harder and kicked and pulled and.... finally, I removed it. I filled in the hole and tomorrow after work, I'll start working on the next part of the patio, in front of the secret lab.

I also found some time to plant some tomatoes in containers. I put them in containers this year because the yard is in such upheaval. Meanwhile, I'm picking our first lettuce of the year tomorrow, and scallians will be ready in a week or two.

Almost there

We need a second camo-net for the full effect. As well, we're going to make and install some mosaics on the back fence.

Next job: get rid of the stump outside my studio door and start a small patio just outside that door (which is where the step-up to the new patio is. Then I'll make the pathway and the raised garden.

I planted some tomatoes in containers yesterday, since the garden is more or less upside down for a while.

Today...well today I'm knocking off and going fishin.

Laying the stone

Thanks to some incredible help from my friend and neighbour Clarence, from across the street, we were able to finish preparing the patio site and lay the stones this evening. Next step is to fill the cracks and hang the camo-netting.

My muscles are complaining, and I'm ready for a good sleep!!

Laying the gravel

Today I managed to complete the excavation - a bigger job than I had figured on (those who thought 'I told you so' may laugh now). You can see the pile of fill I moved out of the area this morning. It is going to eventually fill a raised garden, but that is likely a week or so down the road at the rate I'm going. I laid down the landscape cloth (to keep the weeds down) and started piling on the gravel. this has to be tamped and built up. In the morning, I hope to finish the gravel and lay on the screenings, and if the universe unfolds in a kind and generous way, I'll have the stones down and be thinking about how to suspend the camouflage netting, while enjoying a cool brew tomorrow evening.

While I was working away, I glanced over to the pile of stones, and there was Jerry, hopped up on catnip, being the king of the castle. He's having a great spring. He has more energy than we've seen in a long time.

patio job 'bogged' down in rain....

I finished up the wall this morning. I had miscalculated on the wall stone and needed 21 more stones. I drove up and picked them up early this morning and installed them in the rain. I started to excavate the excess fill (which will be used for raised gardens), but everything was very wet from the rains last night and this morning. If the weather changes and we have a dry day tomorrow, I hope to finish the excavate (a couple hours work at most), lay the landscape cloth, lay the gravel and tamp it, and maybe even get the patio stones down.

The next job will be to get rid of a stump, and do the prep work for some stones around the entrance to my studio, and the path down the yard. After that, I'll work out the gardens.

I knew this was a big job, but it turns out it is a big HEAVY job. Fortunately, I need the exercise.

And today I built a wall

It was a seriously hot day, and I found I had to take many breaks to rehydrate...

The gravel arrived this morning for the back patio

I don't know what they were thinking when they put the screenings on the back of the truck and the gravel on the front?????????

The stone arrived this morning

When I started moving up to the back yard, I realized just how big a job it was going to be to move that much stone. My invoice noted that there was 13,000 pounds of stone. Fortunately, my neighbour, Joseph, came to the rescue and helped me get the job done. The stone arrived this morning at 10:00 and we moved the last of it at 3:30. The hardest part was the three stairs from the driveway up to the back yard. I made a ramp that helped, but it was pretty steep to push a wheelbarrow full of stone up. Tomorrow, I'll work on the retaining wall.

After we finished, I hopped in the car and drove up to the Forks of the Credit for a couple hours of fly fishing....

This is where the patio is going....

This area, in the back corner of our yard is where I'm making the patio. The red Japanese Maple screens the area from the rest of the yard, so it is a private little nook. I was in Kensington Market today, where I bought some camouflage netting which I'm going to install over the patio for partial shade. I'll document the progress each day - I have next week off work to do the patio and the pathway to it. Stone comes Monday, and I'll have to move it all to the back, and then Tuesday, gravel and limestone screenings will be delivered. I'm ready with landscape cloth, shovels, a wheelbarrow and a tamper.